July 4th 2017 Fireworks

Adventureland has announced that this year’s July 4th fireworks will begin at approximately 9:40 p.m. on July 4, 2017 (weather permitting).

I’ve seen the fireworks a number of times over the years, and it’s always a nice show – usually larger than what the various local communities can offer. In past years, when Adventureland held it’s fireworks on the same night that nearby Prairie Meadows did their’s, they seemed to coordinate. Adventureland’s show would go, then as soon as it was over, the casino would begin it’s show — allowing guests in the park a two-for-one show just by facing a different direction 🙂

Here is the nearly 25-minute show from 2016, which included speakers set up all along the River City/Boulevard area to play patriotic music:

The fireworks are launched from near the Raging River loading area. During the day, you can see it from the line:

Fireworks launch area in 2006.

The best viewing area is in River City, though you should be able to see theme from any area not obstructed by buildings or trees. The music, however, can only be heard from the Boulevard/River City area.

In 2016, the park also added new colorful LED lights to the Monster roller coaster and Space Shot. The crew at KCL Engineering that did the installs also created special July 4th light shows:

Neat, eh?

To give you an idea at how much more the park does these days, here is the show from 2009:

And here it is from 2008:

I wasn’t able to visit the park from 2010-2015, so I have no recordings of those years. I don’t know when the park added music to the show. I may have some earlier fireworks recordings on tape somewhere (I took my first digital camcorder to the park in 1999), but I have never posted them. Maybe I’ll have some even older fireworks videos to share next year…